Geared Review

Geared experienced great success on the iPhone, and now it has made its way to the Android Market. The fundamental difference between the two versions is that the Android version is ad-supported, while the iPhone version costs money. As it turns out, you don’t have to spend money to get a top notch puzzle game.

The premise of Geared is simple: there’s one yellow gear on screen that’s moving, and one or more blue gears that aren’t. Your job is to power the blue gears by connecting them to the yellow one with a series of gears provided to you at the beginning of each level. The concept seems extremely simple, and at first glance, it might seem like Geared is incapable of providing a real challenge, but with the addition of no-drop zones, and multiple blue gears that need power, Geared becomes extremely challenging very quickly.Unfortunately, part of the challenge present in Geared comes from the twitchy nature of the controls. You can’t place one gear on top of another, but the teeth of the gears need to be touching so that one gear can move the other. So, you have to get the gears very close to one another without them actually touching. Sometimes, when placing a gear, it might appear that the gears are close enough to be connected, and the game won’t register a connection. Other times, it will appear that the gears are not too close together, but the game will register them as touching. It can be frustrating, but given that there’s no penalty for taking too long to complete a level, nor a reward for completing one in as few moves as possible, the issue is ultimately a forgivable one.

The only other drawback is the presentation. The graphics are simple which isn’t a bad thing, but when combined with the lack of music, and very few sound effects, the presentation just falls flat. It’s not so bad that it detracts from the overall gameplay experience, but it bears mentioning. If you like flashy games with high quality graphics and sound, you’re going to have to get your fix somewhere else.

Geared may have a few flaws, but the gameplay easily makes up for twitchy controls and mediocre presentation. And hey, you can’t beat the price. Any fan of puzzle games should definitely give Geared a try.

Geared Review Rundown

5

Graphics and Sound - Simple graphics and almost no sound. Weak presentation doesn't detract from the overall quality of the game.

8

Controls - The controls are twitchy, but effective overall.

9

Gameplay - Excellent gameplay that any fan of puzzle games will enjoy.

7

Replay Value - With no scoring system there's very little motivation to replay a level once you have beaten it. Other than the sheer fun of it, that is.

7.5

Overall - Geared may have some flaws, but it's an excellent game nonetheless.